After 17 years of upgrades, the Air Force's biggest plane is ready to stay in the air for decades

Business Insider—(AP Photo/Francois Mori)
Lockheed Martin has finished upgrading 52 of the Air Force's biggest plane: the C-5M Super Galaxy.
The main element of the upgrade was a new, more powerful engine.
The upgrades started in 2001 and are supposed to keep the massive plane in service until the 2040s.
Lockheed Martin said earlier this month that the last of 52 upgraded C-5M Super Galaxy cargo planes had been delivered to the Air Force, finishing the nearly two-decade-long modernization of the service's...

Who Care About Russia's Stealth Fighter: The Su-35 Is the Plane the Air Force Should Fear. Sebastien Roblin
Security, Europe
The Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E is the top Russian air-superiority fighter in service today, and represents the pinnacle of fourth-generation jet fighter design. It will remain so until Russia succeeds in bringing its fifth-generation PAK-FA stealth fighter into production.
The maneuverability of the Su-35 makes it an unsurpassed dogfighter. However, future aerial clashes using the latest missiles (R-77s, Meteors, AIM-120s) could potentially take place over...

Kris Osborn
Security,
The testing is aimed at addressing the most current air defense system threats such as Russian-made systems and also focused on potential next-generation or yet-to-exist threats, Air Force officials said.
While the Air Force aims to prepare for the unlikely contingency of a potential engagement with near-peer rivals such as Russia or China, Air Force planners recognize that there is much more concern about having to confront an adversary which has purchased air-defense...

Associated Press/Elaine Thompson
Richard Russell, an airline ground agent at Sea-Tac International Airport, stole an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane and fatally crashed into a small island on Friday night.
Officials said Saturday that the 29-year-old was a 3.5-year Horizon Air employee and had clearance to be among aircraft, but that to their knowledge, he wasn't a licensed pilot.
At a news conference on Saturday, officials from Alaska Airlines and Horizon said they are working with...

As the Pentagon works to fulfill President Donald Trump's desire to create a sixth service branch, a former secretary of the Air Force warned that a "space force" would worsen problems plaguing the U.S. military's space efforts.